Open Constitution Intiative Not Allowed to Pay Fines

After being fined for allegedly violating tax laws, Xu Zhiyong’s Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative) has solicited donations from the public to pay the fines. However, authorities have frozen the organization’s bank accounts, making it impossible for them to pay the required fines, according to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders. A blogger who claims to be a college student somewhere in western China has written an open letter (in English) to President Obama asking him to support the release of Xu Zhiyong:

Days ago, OCI lawyers went to tax office to pay the fine.

To astonish everyone of us, officials decided that they’re not going accept it! In their defense, they don’t accept it when they don’t have corporate representative present, who is Xu Zhiyong, who can’t be present because police confined him.

I’m not an expert on law, I’m just an ordinary citizen, yet even an ordinary citizen can tell injustice from justice, arbitrary government behavior from law enforcement.

As if they haven’t had their fun, the administration put Sichuan activist Tan Zuoren [on trial] just yesterday, during which all defendant witnesses have been arrested or even beaten by police on their way to the courthouse, and a great number of journalists got harassed or confined.